On Lincecum’s arm and the “odd couple”

Some extras from the Cy Young news conference, filed by Henry Schulman:

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Six weeks after completing a 227-inning season, and pitching on short rest in the final week to bolster his Cy Young chances, Tim Lincecum reported that his priceless right arm is just dandy.

“I feel fine,” he said, noting that he just began his normal fall workouts after “kind of sitting on my butt” since the season ended.

“Everything feels normal.”

“Normal” is not the way to describe the goings-on at Barry Zito’s house in the Hollywood Hills since he invited closer Brian Wilson to be his roommate, aside from the two different personalities sharing one abode. When Lincecum said he visited the duo for a week, GM Brian Sabean quickly said, “We’re glad you came back. We’re glad you didn’t stay down there.” And, as pitching coach Dave Righetti said, “That must have been an interesting trifecta down there.”

No, the strangest going-on is Zito trying to keep up with Wilson’s maniacal workout regimen, which now includes a 3 1/2-mile run up the hill to Zito’s house. Lincecum said Wilson completes it in 17 minutes.

Lincecum was duly impressed by both pitchers’ work ethic, saying, “I don’t know how they do it down there. I don’t know how you keep up. Every day it’s like 80 degrees and warm and nice, and it’s so inviting to do stuff. I’m used to being at home where it’s raining and it just gives you an excuse not to do anything.”

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Brandon Webb had a rather terse response to finishing second to Lincecum, in the form of a prepared statement issued through his agent. It read, “I would like to congratulate Tim on a tremendous year. While I am disappointed I did not win, I was excited I was able to win 22 games and be considered for this great honor again. Once again, congratulations to Tim. He’s a great pitcher.”

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Manager Bruce Bochy was the only person (aside from Wilson) who said he was sure Lincecum would win.

“I was ecstatic when I got the news for Timmy,” Bochy said. “I’ve been waiting for this day. I felt good about it. Watching him every five days, I thought he would win it. I’m not surprised even though he was in a very elite group of pitchers he was competing against. I felt Timmy would win it.”

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On a personal note, I don’t know if any of you heard me call into the Dibble-Kennedy show on XM today. For the zillionth time, Dibble was complaining about the writers voting on awards and the Hall of Fame. I made the point that Cy Young and MVP awards were created by, and are the property of, the Baseball Writers Association of America. So why shouldn’t the writers do the voting?

We’re not always right, but don’t you think we have a pretty good track record on these awards?

Finally, a word of support for Chicago Sun-Times columnist Chris DeLuca, who left Lincecum off his ballot completely. He looks pretty bad, being the only one, but I can say from experience that the Cy Young ballot is excruciatingly difficult because you only get to vote for three. There are ALWAYS more than three deserving candidates.

I always find it easier to complete an MVP ballot, because you get to write 10 names down. I know I have lost sleep over some of my Cy Young ballots because of omissions such as DeLuca’s.